Detecting and Evaluating Water Ingress in Horizontally Oriented Aviation Honeycomb Panels by Using Automated Thermal Nondestructive Testing

Results of applying active thermal nondestructive testing for the detection of water ingress in horizontally oriented aviation honeycomb panels and quantitative evaluation of water content are presented. Unlike ultrasonic inspection, thermal testing allows one to detect water and evaluate its quantity in the presence of air gaps between water and inspected honeycomb skin. The proposed algorithm based on using an artificial neural network has enabled estimating water content with errors under 15% in the cases where water contacts a honeycomb skin, as well as in the presence of air gaps between the skin and water.